Jazz jolt Rockets with comeback win in Houston
Sunday, April 1st, 2007
by John
Yao throws one down with Utah’s Mehmet Okur looking on. Yao carried the Rockets with 35 points, 16 boards and 4 blocks, but several breakdowns contributed to Houston losing a 9-point second-half lead and letting the Jazz sneak out of Houston with a huge victory. Click here for more photos from the game.
The Rockets lost a huge game to the Utah Jazz Sunday night in Houston. I was confident the Rockets were going to win after taking a 9-point lead late in the 3rd quarter. I thought surely they would make the necessary defensive stops and hit the buckets they needed to take a lead in the standings over Utah for home court advantage in the playoffs, especially after seeing the two clutch wins they had in Los Angeles this past week.
But they lost, and I narrow it down to four specific things that contibuted to Houston’s loss.
First: the officials. Carlos Boozer hit a huge bucket with 43 seconds remaining in the game, but he charged into Shane Battier. Battier had position to draw the charge, but the damn ref called it the other way, saying Battier was too late in sliding over. I vehemently disagree.
That was a huge call that put Boozer on the line for the penalty free throw, making it 85-81 and capping an 8-0 run. ^&#%@*! REFS! If anything, you don’t make that call. You let it go if you’re not sure at such a crucial juncture in the game. That 4-point edge with 43 seconds remaining was going to be hard to overcome.
Yao throws one down with Utah’s Mehmet Okur looking on. Yao carried the Rockets with 35 points, 16 boards and 4 blocks, but several breakdowns contributed to Houston losing a 9-point second-half lead and letting the Jazz sneak out of Houston with a huge victory. Click here for more photos from the game.The Rockets lost a huge game to the Utah Jazz Sunday night in Houston. I was confident the Rockets were going to win after taking a 9-point lead late in the 3rd quarter. I thought surely they would make the necessary defensive stops and hit the buckets they needed to take a lead in the standings over Utah for home court advantage in the playoffs, especially after seeing the two clutch wins they had in Los Angeles this past week.
But they lost, and I narrow it down to four specific things that contibuted to Houston’s loss.
First: the officials. Carlos Boozer hit a huge bucket with 43 seconds remaining in the game, but he charged into Shane Battier. Battier had position to draw the charge, but the damn ref called it the other way, saying Battier was too late in sliding over. I vehemently disagree.
That was a huge call that put Boozer on the line for the penalty free throw, making it 85-81 and capping an 8-0 run. ^&#%@*! REFS! If anything, you don’t make that call. You let it go if you’re not sure at such a crucial juncture in the game. That 4-point edge with 43 seconds remaining was going to be hard to overcome.
